Fondiari “Mola” 2005 Aleatico dell’Elba (Elba) – 375 ml. Certainly my first wine from Elba, and one of the more unusual aleaticos I’ve tasted (bet you don’t read that phrase every day). It’s got the bright, keening, slightly herbal red fruit with laser-sharp acidity one expects, and the zippy fruit-derived sweetness, but there’s also a stronger-willed, brown-rock substance to its foundation, and an intensity rarely found in a wine that’s usually lighter and more lithe than this. It’s definitely an alternative expression of the grape, but I really enjoy it. (6/08)
Browse Month
June 2008
20 + Bullwinkle + a needle pulling thread
Brun “FRV100” (Beaujolais) – In the pantheon of sparkling pink beverages, this is the pirate king; assertive, boldly-iconoclastic, rebellious, and showy. The purplish fruit with a heady, freshly-pulled beer froth never “forms up” into a traditional wine structure, but instead comes in waves and eddies of texture and intense flavor. It is, it is a glorious thing. (6/08)
Sylvia Majoli for NPR
Sella 2006 Coste della Sesia “Majoli” Rosato (Piedmont) – Difficult. There’s a leafy, semi-exotic red fruit character here that should be compelling, but the wine just doesn’t bring its qualities to the palate, instead preferring to sit in the corner and brood. It was much better tasted at the source, which suggests either damage or bottle shock, but in this form it’s never going to be a crowd-pleaser. Or, for that matter, a me-pleaser. (6/08)
Charmes life
![[label]](http://www.jean-marc-burgaud.com/new/wp-content/uploads/.thumbs/.Etik_Charme.jpg)
J-M Burgaud 2006 Morgon Les Charmes (Beaujolais) – Light to the point of insignificance at first sip – a shocking thing for a Morgon – this gains weight, flexibility, and complexity with food. Dark berry vines writhe and heavily-salted minerality abounds. There’s very little point in opening this wine until it knits, and it should improve for a half-decade with little effort, but it’s wan right now. (6/08)
Carapace & skeleton
Edmunds St. John 2003 “Shell and Bone” Red (Paso Robles) – 13.8%. All shell, no bone. It’s white-hued and brittle, showing almost nothing at this stage, with a very long finish full of the promise of…wait, what’s that? What did it say? It’s not quite audible. If you own this, do not drink it now. I have 100% confidence in its future based on its youth, but its present is a different story. (6/08)
Second to none
Roussel & Barrouillet “Clos Roche Blanche” 2006 Touraine Sauvignon “No. 2” (Loire) – Really enticing in a way I’m not quite sure how to characterize. I’m not the world’s biggest CRB sauvignon fan (though unabashedly a fan of many of their other wines), thinking that the chalky Touraine-ness often overwhelms the sauvignon, making the wine taste like a clumsy, somewhat challenged chenin with less balance. Here, however, it all comes together, with a bright green glow from within that enveloping sheathe of chalk and aspirin, balanced and full-bodied yet with flair and a deft finish. The price might be that it’s not ageable, but that’s just a guess. (6/08)
Even a blind trail finds a nut once in a while
Wild Earth “Blind Trail” 2006 Pinot Noir (Central Otago) – There’s no way a Central Otago pinot at this low price point can be any good. And yet, it is. What voodoo are they working? The usual dark, slightly charred and heavy plum, beet, and blood orange fruit is buoyed by fresh acidity but an otherwise complete absence of structure. It’s drinkable now, it won’t be drinkable very long from now, but it’s certainly quite representative of the Otago terroir. How in the hell did they do this? Was Sam Neill, who played the Antichrist and makes wine in the Central Otago, involved? (A: no, he was not. But Michelle Richardson, who’s as much of a winemaking star as star-abhorring New Zealand can generate, was…at least when this wine was made. She’s since moved on.) (6/08)
The truth Ornellaia
Marchese Lodovico “Ornellaia” 1996 Bolgheri “Superiore” (Tuscany) – A slick European playboy in an impossibly expensive suit, with a jutting jaw, gelled hair, and a just so shadow of precisely-manicured whiskers. Yet the suit, the hair, and the grooming wrap an entity without substance or interest. And worse, aside from the first highly-appealing impression, closer study reveals that the guy just isn’t that attractive after all. It’s all artifice. It’s all for show. It doesn’t mean anything, and you certainly don’t want to have a conversation with it. (6/08)
What you call Corno, we call maize-o
i Clivi di Ferdinando Zanusso 1997 Colli Orientali del Friuli Galea Corno di Rosazzo (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) – A little more advanced than other bottles I’ve tasted, though I still wouldn’t call it ready (and I attribute the difference to normal bottle variation). Parchment, bones, tea, grey-white soil, dried apricot chip, and more. What begins with brittleness and spines smoothes and rounds as the wine lingers. Just beautiful. (6/08)
For MR and MR
Telmo Rodríguez “MR” 2002 Málaga Moscatel (Málaga) – Classic muscat with more intensity and brilliance than usual, though it’s in no way a light wine; sun shines from the core, almost blindingly so, lending warmth and presence. There’s more spice than normal, and a dense, rounded texture. Delish. (6/08)